Come October, Sudhir Sitapati will have spent four years leading the company behind widely recognised brands such as Cinthol (soap), Good Knight, and Hit (both household insecticides). At Rs 1.29 lakh crore ($14.7 billion), Godrej Consumer Products, part of a storied business group, is India’s fifth-biggest standalone maker of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) by market value.

That also makes Godrej Consumer—which traces its origins to a soap made in 1918—a weathervane for the financial health of Indian households and, by extension, the economy.

Sitapati joined the company as managing director and chief executive at a time when it had been struggling to break out of its rut. Between the years ended March 2017 and March 2021, Godrej Consumer’s sales grew at nearly half the rate as Hindustan Unilever’s (HUL), despite the former being much smaller.

Since then, Godrej Consumer’s annual growth, at under 7%, has not been far behind that of HUL, where Sitapati worked for well over two decades before taking up the top job at Godrej Consumer. (In 2019,  he even published a book on HUL, ‘The CEO Factory’.) But for him and his FMCG counterparts, the past year has been all about persuading Indian consumers to untie the purse strings at a time of rising prices—the result of dearer palm oil and other commodities—and a worrisome job marketReutersOfficial India jobless data is not accurate, say top independent economists.

The pain for consumers is not across the board, though. “I’m increasingly looking at the top 20% of India,” Sitapati said in a conversation with The Ken at his home office in Mumbai.

It’s not that Godrej Consumer is immune to the turmoil in FMCG, but its new products, ranging from plug-in air fresheners and laundry liquids to dog food, speak to the kind of customers it wants to bet its future on.

Edited excerpts:

For a while now, it’s been impossible to discuss FMCG without talking about how consumers aren’t buying enough, even though there are signs of recovery now. What exactly is happening, in your opinion?

The top 20%, which is watching connected TVAny television that is connected to the internet, allowing for the streaming of on-demand content and using quick commerce and e-commerce, is experiencing a boom.